THIRD WEEK-TUESDAY.

FLOWERS. THEIR FORM, COLOR, AND FRAGRANCE.

THE variety which exists in the vegetable world is an example of a quality which pervades all Nature, and stands forth in each of its departments as a very conspicuous feature in the character of creation. There is a continued chain of existence, commencing with the most crude materials, and passing from earth, rocks, and metals, to the more subtile elements which compose water, air, and light; and thence again to vegetable productions, rising through the various tribes of mosses and fungi, to grasses, shrubs, and trees, till Nature combines all that is beautiful and delightful in this department of her works, in the formation of flowers. These, though comparatively minute productions, yet contain in their construction, both as regards its appearance and its uses, so many proofs of beneficent intention, that there seems no part of the vegetable world which presents, in so concentrated a form, such varied evidences of a Divine Hand.

"Flowers may be regarded not only as the last, but the most elaborated organs of the vegetable system. Whether we contemplate the beauty of their forms, the splendor of their colors, or the delicious fragrance they every where breathe around us; or whether, with a physiological eye, we survey the delicacy of their structure, and investigate the peculiar functions they perform, we cannot but feel the greatest admiration of the skill with which, in a compass so small, and by means apparently so simple, such a series of actions, terminating in results so varied and important, can at once be combined and regulated."* In this short, but comprehensive, description, two intentions of Creative Intelligence are indicated, the object of the one being to afford a source of innocent gratification to the senses, and that of the other, to contribute to some useful purpose, either in the economy

* Supplement to Encyclopedia Britannica, Art. Vegetable Physiology.

of the plant itself, or as respects the animal creation. To the first of these objects, the attention of the reader shall be at present directed.

As a mere source of innocent gratification to the senses, flowers seem to be formed almost exclusively for the benefit of man. He, alone, of all sentient beings, seems peculiarly formed to derive pleasure from a sense of the graceful and beautiful, or from the perception of a delicious perfume. The eyes of other animals are often even more acute than those of the human species, in distinguishing between what is hurtful or nutritious in their food, or in discerning between friends and foes, and in other means of self-preservation; while, to the same objects, their olfactory nerves are remarkably alive; and doubtless, with the exercise of these instinctive or acquired feelings, much of the enjoyment of their lives is connected; but those delicate sensations, connected, in some degree, with the mental faculties, and heightened by agreeable associations, which arise from the brilliancy and harmony of colors, from elegance of form, and from sweetness of odor, seem to be almost exclusively reserved by the Creator, as the privilege of the highest of His terrestrial creatures. That there may, however, be a slight degree of enjoyment in some of the lower animals, arising from a bright color, or a pungent smell, independent of the feelings already mentioned, I am not inclined to deny ; but, in extent, and probably also in kind, it is certainly far inferior to the enjoyment derived by the human race from these sources; while, of the faculty which discerns the beauty of form and proportions, they seem to be wholly destitute.

On what principles in the human frame, either bodily or mental, these sensations depend, I shall not stop to inquire. Some very elaborate and ingenious treatises on taste, and the perception of beauty, are in the possession of the public; but it is sufficient for us, at present, to know the fact, that such sensations exist, and that they contribute, in no trifling degree, to the elegant enjoyments of human life, increasing and becoming more exalted, in proportion to the progress of mental refinement. Assum

ing, therefore, the existence of these pleasurable feelings, of which every person must be sensible from his own experience, I am entitled to adduce the form, color, and fragrance of flowers, as an instance of benevolent adaptation of a very remarkable, and, at the same time, a very satisfactory kind. The mind of man being made capable of deriving pleasure from certain forms and proportions in objects of vision, we find the very forms and proportions best calculated to excite this pleasure, impressed in great variety on the multitudinous races of flowers. Their stalks, their leaves, the shape of their petals, are, in the vast majority of instances, such as to afford an agreeable sensation to the beholder, by gratifying that peculiar faculty which is known by the name of taste. A similar

observation may be made with regard to the color of flowers. The delicacy or brilliancy of their hues, the softness of their shades, the variety of their tints, sometimes contrasted, sometimes harmonizing, but almost always agreeable, prove, in the most satisfactory manner, design and adjustment between these appearances, and the susceptibility of pleasure in the human mind. It cannot be said, with regard either to form or color, that they afford indiscriminate gratification; for the mind is as capable of disgust from certain forms, and certain combinations of colors, as of enjoyment from others. There is, in the case of flowers, therefore, an obvious selection of the agreeable, and rejection of the unpleasant, in both these particulars, which can only have proceeded from a desire in the Creator to communicate enjoyment.

A precisely similar mode of reasoning will prove benevolent design in adding fragrance to the other delightful properties of flowers. There seems no reason, in the nature of their constituent parts, why flowers should emit any smell at all; nor, if they did, why that smell should be a sweet and grateful odor, rather than the reverse; but, in reference to the intention of an Intelligent Creator, the reason is obvious. It is one of the means by which Divine Benevolence enlarges the sphere of enjoyment to His rational creatures.

Nor must we forget, that the very union of all these

VIII.

agreeable properties in a whole class of vegetable productions, is itself an additional proof of kind intention in the Creator. Had only one of such qualities belonged to an individual species, while, in other respects, its properties were repulsive ;-had symmetry of form, for example, in one class, been accompanied with an unsightly color, or a disagreeable scent; and, in another, had beauty of tints, or sweetness of fragrance, been united with deformity of figure, the pleasure would have been greatly diminished, if not totally counteracted. But the opposite of this, usually occurs; and, in such grouping of various agreeable properties, not naturally combined, we once more perceive an evidence of paternal care. This, again, is rendered still more palpable by the bountiful profusion, and inexhaustible variety, with which flowers are scattered on the green lap of spring. Wherever we wander,-in lawn, or field, or wood, or glade, over swelling hill, or low-lying meadow, these gems of vegetation, in all their diversified loveliness, from the "wee, modest, crimson-tippit flower," to the lily of the valley, arrayed in chaster beauty than Solomon in all his glory, as they spring up beneath our feet, arrest our gaze, and excite our admiration.

I persuade myself that it is not possible for any candid mind to resist the conclusion which flows from these combined particulars, that there is a Being of matchless skill, and condescending goodness, whose Hand may be traced even in the wild flowers of the desert; and whose perfections are not the less admirable, that He has lavished them on objects so minute and insignificant, and has cared, even in such comparatively unimportant matters as appearance and perfume, for the innocent gratification of his rational offspring. It is true; indeed, that we sometimes meet with a flower of a shape or odor, which excites disagreeable sensations, and this is quite in accordance with the analogy of Nature in a world where every thing is intended to remind us that here is not our rest; but in this, as in other departments of Nature, benevolence vastly predominates, and a Father's care is conspicuous. It was not without reason that Mungo Park, in

an hour of despair, was reassured, by the sight of a little flower, looking forth in its loveliness from the soil of the wilderness; and that he received energy to effect his deliverance, by reflecting on that beautiful and comforting sentiment uttered by the Divine Saviour, "If God so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall He not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith ?”

THIRD WEEK-WEDNESDAY.

FLOWERS. THEIR ORGANS OF REPRODUCTION, AND THEIR SECRETION OF HONEY.

BESIDES the properties of form, hue, and fragrance, which I noticed yesterday, as belonging to flowers, these lovely and cúrious productions are made to perform some highly important functions as respects the economy of the plants themselves, as well as in reference to the animal world.

The corolla, or, in popular language, the flower, surrounds those delicate organs on which the reproduction of the plant depends, and consists of one or more petals, which are placed within a calyx, or flower-cup, generally of leaflets. Its physiological use is various. Its petals are found to abound in air-vessels, and to form carbonic acid gas, though they do not decompose it, like the leaves; and hence they have been called by Dr. Darwin, the lungs of the reproductive organs, while the leaves may certainly be held to perform, to the rest of the plant, a function analogous to that of lungs. The best-ascertained office, however, which the corolla executes, is that of protection to the organs of reproduction, which are enclosed by it. For this purpose, it is obviously contrived. Amidst the most striking elegance and variety of shape, in the different species, this function is never lost sight of. It opens its bosom to the sun, and sometimes turns toward him, and follows his course as he